By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 4, 2021 – When I saw the headline of a story in The Tribune today, I was infuriated by the blatant attempt that was intentionally made to make it look as if newly elected Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis had sought influence a decision pending in a U.S. Court against Adrian Fox, the co-owner of Island Luck Webshop.
Written by Neil Hartnell, The Tribune’s Business Editor, the article was headlined: PM URGES US JUDGE: END PURSUIT OF WEB SHOP BOSS
And what was clearly the epitome of shoddy, dishonest journalism, Mr. Hartnell began his article with this lead paragraph: “The Prime Minister has urged a US judge to end the federal authorities’ pursuit of Island Luck’s co-founder, writing: ‘I strongly advocate termination of proceedings against Mr Adrian Fox.’ “
What followed in the next paragraph left little doubt that Mr. Hartnell was being wickedly disingenuous when he wrote: “Philip Davis QC, in an August 10, 2021, letter to Judge Denise Cote, hailed Mr Fox’s role as a key player in efforts to legalise the Bahamian web shop sector, which he described as ‘an industry that long plagued our nation’s underground.’ ”
Mr. Harnell went on to further reveal his nefarious intentions to mislead the readers of Tribune regarding the letter written by Mr. Davis when he wrote: “The letter, which was written just over a month prior to Mr Davis’ election as Prime Minister, was filed in the southern New York district court on Friday as one of many character references urging Judge Cote to impose a light, non-custodial sentence upon Mr Fox over the role he played in a human smuggling operation more than a decade ago.”
HERE’S A QUESTION: If Mr. Hartnell admits that the letter was written “just over a month prior to Mr Davis’ election as Prime Minister,” why would he dishonestly write the headline that he wrote, knowing that he was telling what amounts to a blatant lie?
What’s more, later in his article he noted: “Besides Mr Davis, character references were also supplied by two of his newly-elected Cabinet ministers, Jomo Campbell, minister of state for legal affairs, and Alfred Sears, minister of works and utilities. Both men and their law firms provided legal services to Mr Fox and his companies prior to their election as MPs and Cabinet ministers, and their letters were also written in August 2021.”
Mr. Hartell happens to be a journalist from England, which means that The Tribune annually pays a hefty fee for his work permit, if that is still a requirement for news organizations hiring foreign journalists. It would seem to me that given Mr. Hartnell’s gutter journalistic practices, The Tribune is wasting its money renewing his contract annually.
I received my early training as a journalist at The Tribune after joining the staff as a cub reporter in May of 1960 under the tutelage of Sir Etienne Dupuch, the then Publisher and Editor of The Tribune, and Arthur A. Foulkes, who at the time was the Tribune’s News Editor.
I also give a great deal of credit for my training during my tenure at The Tribune to Nicki Kelly, who was a senior reporter at The Tribune primarily responsible for covering the House of Assembly and other matters of a political nature.
When Mr. Foulkes ran for a seat in the House of Assembly in the Far East in the 1962 general election and lost, he resigned from The Tribune and along with other members of the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA), a young activist group in the PLP, they established The Bahamian Times, a weekly newspaper to promote and publicize the activities of the PLP.
I joined Mr. Foulkes at Bahamian Times in 1965, and after the PLP won the historic January 10, 1967, general election, PLP Leader Lynden Pindling arranged for me to go to London for one year’s training in journalism (1968 – 1969) at the London Evening Standard, a sister newspaper of the London Daily Express.
The Editor of the London Evening Standard, Sir Charles Wintour, personally picked me up from the airport and I was guest in his house for two weeks before I found an apartment at 3 Seagrave Road S.W. London. I thought I was a good journalist before I went to London, but my training at the Evening Standard was first-class.
I mention all this for the benefit of Neil Hartnell, who clearly could have benefited from similar training on top-rate British newspaper. More likely that not, he came to The Bahamas from one of those provincial newspapers where the reporting standards are not as high as what is demanded by Fleet Street newspapers.
That he is able to get away with such dishonest writing in The Tribune raises another question: Who is the current Editor of The Tribune.
The paper’s Masthead lists “EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON, C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B.” as its Publisher/Editor since 1972. The truth is Mrs. Carron currently has to be around 90 years old, and she probably is not that involved in the day-to-day activities in the newsroom.
But surely, there must be someone in authority in the newsroom of The Tribune with sufficient journalistic skills and integrity to let Mr. Hartnell know that he should not be practicing journalism in such in a grossly negligent manner.
